The first event in the third month after having left Egypt, G-D for the only time "spoke" to all the people giving at that time the ten commandments and a series of civil laws. (Exodus 20-24)

G-D then called upon Moses to:-

" Come up to ME into the mount and be there and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law and the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them." Exodus 24:12.

And so Moses goes up to the mountain for his first 40 day visit where he is given a set of stones MADE BY G-D together with comprehensive instructions regarding the sanctuary. As part of those instructions G-D is very explicit. Moses is to make an ark of acasia wood which shall be overlain with pure gold which was to be topped by two cherubim also of gold. Most importantly for our story:-

" And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony WHICH I SHALL GIVE THEE" Exodus 25:16

We shall see that this sentence is crucial, because these first stones are the ONLY ones that G-D gave to Moses.

The rest of that event is well known. Moses came down from the mountain and broke the stones "WHICH G-D HAD GIVEN HIM".
The third meeting took place at "The Tent of Meeting" where Moses pleaded for a second chance.

The event to follow was NOT the same as the first visit to the mountain.
This time G-D was not going to give Moses a new set of tablets. Instead the Lord said unto Moses:

" Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto first; and I will write upon the tablets the words that were on the first tables, which thou didst break." Exodus 34:1

It is obvious therefore that this set of stones cannot be the ones G-D referred to when he order Moses to put them in the Ark of Gold. In fact G-D goes even further he orders Moses to bring another ark with him, one of simple wood.

" Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto ME into the mount; and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou didst break and thou shalt put them in the ark.......And I turned and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me. " Deuteronmy 10: 1-5.

But this was written 40 years after the Exodus and we know that some stones were placed in the Golden Ark "on the first day of the first month" of the second year after the Exodus. Exodus 40:1.

" And he took and put the testimony into the ark" Deuteronomy 40:20.

The Torah therefore is absolutely clear. There were two arks, two sets of stones and in accordance with G-D's orders, the broken stones WHICH G-D gave, were placed in the Golden ark and the stones which Moses cut were placed in the wooden ark.

We shall see where the two arks and the two sets of stones are in the next chapter.

PART II, THE TANAKH

Jeroboam. the son of Nabat, was put in charge of building the Millo, by Solomon his King. It is the last story in the Book of Kings before the death of Solomon.

However, Jeroboam met the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite who forecast that he would become the King of the northern ten of the tribes of Israel. Solomon heard of this prophesy and " sought to kill " Jeroboam who was forced to flee to Egypt to the household of the Egyptian King, Shishak. there he remained until the death of Solomon. I Kings 11:26-41.

The relationship between Jeroboam and Shishak was a close one and they became not only allies but Shishak gave in marriage to Jeroboam, Ano the eldest sister of his own wife Thelkemina. Septuagint: Reges III, 12-24e.

After Solomon's death, Jeroboam returned to Israel and as the prophesy foretold, became King of the Ten Northern Tribes leaving Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, King of Judah and Benjamin which of course included the city of Jerusalem.

" AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE KINGDOM OF REHOBOAM WAS ESTABLISHED, AND HE WAS STRONG, THAT HE FORSOOK THE LAW OF THE LORD, AND ALL ISRAEL WITH HIM." II Chron. 12:1

He had built a system of great fortifications and had wanted to attack Jeroboam in the north but the prophet Shemaiah warned against it. It was at this point that Shishak the ally of Jeroboam, attacked from the south with a massive army consisting of 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and " people without number that came with him out of Egypt: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians." II Chron. 12:2-3,

Because Rehoboam had dealt treacherously with the Lord, he was surrounded on all sides, Jeroboam with the ten tribes in the north, Shishak with an immense army in the south. Shishak took all the great fortified cities that Rehoboam had built to protect Jerusalem and came there.

There in Jerusalem was the greatest treasure the world had ever known, treasure amassed by Solomon and that brought by the Children of Israel out of Egypt. More importantly, Jeroboam, the ally of Shishak knew of every item.

The demands of Shishak were simple, hand over the treasure and Jerusalem would be left alone.

" So Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the King's house: he took all away"

That was the account in Chronicles, written by Ezra in Babylon. The account in the Book of Kings similarly reads:

"..Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the King's house; he even took away all." I Kings 14: 25-26.

Is there any doubt that Rehoboam was forced to give up everything EVEN THE ARK. He was no longer doing the bidding of G-D. Ezra had an opportunity of clarifying the account in the Book of Kings. Jeroboam knew EVERYTHING of importance regarding the treasures in Jerusalem. What possible excuse would there be for Rehoboam not to hand over everything as stated?

Those who rely on the Talmud for their clarification should note:-

PESACHIM 87b. The Great Treasure (which Joseph had accumulated in Egypt and more) described in G-D's promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:14) returned to Egypt.

The Ark covered in Gold was taken by Shishak. The tales of an Ark being hidden under the Temple may very well have applied to the simple ark of wood containing the stones which Moses had taken up the mountain, but the Ark of Gold according to the Tanakh went to Egypt.

The question is what happened to the contents? The broken stones which G-D had given to Moses?

We will discover that when we look at the Egyptian records of the Egyptian King Shishak in the next installment.

PART III. EGYPT ( THE ERRORS)

Champollion, the great translator of the Egyptian hieroglyphics visited Karnak in 1828 and saw a scene of Shoshenk I and a list of captured towns, the names of which immediately seemed familiar. They seemed to correspond to the biblical names of the cities of Judah and Ephraim (Samaria). He put two and two together and came up with the identification of Shoshenq with the name of the Egyptian King Shishak who invaded Judah at the time of Rehoboam.

" And he ( Shishak) took the fortified cities which pertained to Judah and came unto Jerusalem". II Chron. 12:4

So the great myth was born and it is one of the main pillars of Egyptian chronology to this day.

For the identification to be correct either the Biblical account of the invasion of Shishak or the Karnak account of the invasion of Shoshenq have to be inaccurate. That did not worry Egyptian scholars too much, they immediatly accepted the Egypian account and rejected the details of the Biblical one. When one looks at a map of the invasion route of Shoshenq l, one immediately sees that he bypassed Judah and concentrated his attack to the north.

The Biblical account lists the names of 15 towns fortified by Rehoboam. The list of Shoshenq includes only one of them whilst listing 64 others, the vast majority in the NORTH.

The Biblical account and the only logical one has Shishak invading the South, capturing the fortified cities of Judah and leaving the north alone. Why logical? Well, Jeroboam, the King of the north was an ally and now a family member of Shishak. Why would he attack his ally and bypass his enemy and the great treasure of Solomon? This does not seem to have disturbed the Egyptologists who have imposed their view on all the archaeology of the region so that ALL site identifications in the region have been erroneously dated.

If one has to search for a reason why Biblical archaeologists have had a very hard time reconciling their finds with the Biblical account, one need look no further.They have been straining to fit erroneously dated sites into the Biblical story. Once the strata are correctly dated, each and every Biblical event can be seen accurately portrayed by the archaeological evidence.

The archaeology however is not the only problem caused by the erroneous identification of Shishak with Shoshenq I. Two other Egyptians are referred to in the Biblical account in this era. The first is the father-in-law of Solomon, an Egyptian King who gave his daughter the city of Gezer as a wedding present. Gezer is closer than 20 miles from Jerusalem and was obviously not at that time in the hands of the powerful David or Solomon. It must have been a powerful Egyptian King indeed to have held that town so close to the capital city of David. The problem is that if Shishak is Shoshenq I, the Egyptologists have to have an obscure Pharaoh called Siamun of the 21st Dynasty, to be that king. Oooops, there is no evidence that Siamun ever left Egypt or that he could even if he had wanted.

Then we have the problem of Zerah, the Ethiopian who came up against Asa with a million man army. If Shishak is Shoshenq I, then Zerah must have been either Osorkon I (22nd Dynasty) or someone under his control. Again absolutely NO evidence that it could have been even a remote possibility. What do the Egyptians say?.....Not much, either the Biblical account is totally wrong, or exagerated or the Egyptian evidence is lost.

We will show however that if Shishak is correctly identified, the identification of the father-in-law of Solomon and Zerah are both absolutely clear in the Egyptian records. There can be no doubt, they are described in exquisite detail.

But if Shishak was not Shoshenq, then which Egyptian King was he?

We will discover that when we investigate all the possible candidates for the identification, in the next installment.

THE CORONATION STONE
(Jacob's Pillow, The Stone of Destiny, Lia Fail)

A N N O U N C E M E N T

" Mysteries of the Bible Revealed and Resolved"